leading the way - Commercial Law League Of America

leadership
The research group I worked on at the University of
Chicago included a heart surgeon, an endocrinologist, two
Ph.D’s in educational research, a psychologist, a couple of
nurse practitioners and me—a marketing writer. It was the
idea of my boss, Dr. Wylie McNabb, to add a marketer to
the group. He had heard the old adage that a good salesman
could “sell ice cubes to Eskimos,” and wanted to see if
it was true. My first assignment was to look at the educational
materials and classes that had been developed from
an advertiser’s perspective. He asked me to consider marketing
techniques that would get patients to “buy” in.
At first, I felt like I was in over my head. The information
was clear and so were the consequences. But as I spoke
with patients, I began to hear the same things again and
again. “What’s the use?” “I have lived this way for so many
years, I can’t change now.” “But I love cigarettes … or
booze … or fried food … etc.” “I can’t change because my
partner … family … friends … or co-workers, etc. live this
way too.”
Patients weren’t motivated to change because they believed
that they couldn’t. And, I believed that there was another
problem under the surface—they weren’t being given positive
choices. They were given information, ultimatums, and
substitutions.
An advertiser would go out of business trying to sell this
way! Just imagine the slogans—“Drink Diet Coke, it won’t
make you as fat as regular Coke!” “Drive a Volvo, so that
you won’t die in a crash!” “Come to Disney World. It’s not
as boring as your normal life.” It occurred to me that people
need a strong, positive offer and easy instructions on
how to receive the offer.
As we began to structure our educational programs as a
positive marketing offer, the results began to change. For
example, in a class for children under 12 years old with
type-one diabetes, we taught them to give themselves an
insulin shot twice a day by becoming “Sugar Busters.” Like
the Ghost Busters (popular at the time) they were given a
“weapon” to fight monsters—Hypo and Hyper
(glycemia)—their syringe. We created a comic book for the
program that showed heroic children their age using riflesized
syringes to defend themselves against the bad guys.
When a child gave him or herself their first shot without
help from a nurse or parent, they received an official Sugar-
Buster Badge and a wall plaque. The program transformed
children who screamed and cried every time they saw the
needle, into kids who couldn’t wait to give themselves the
first shot. The positive choices empowered them and minimized
the threat.
In a program to help adult diabetics lower their fat and
sugar intake, we created a lunchtime cooking club. The
combination of free food and natural competition among
cooks who brought dishes and shared recipes, made the
lunchtime meetings very popular. Inexpensive free offers
like food scales and measuring cups drew new members to
the meetings. We moderated the fun, but didn’t have to do
very much teaching because the attendees were learning to
make positive choices from each other and meeting new
friends, too.
The early results measuring compliance and health outcomes
were some of the best results ever found in medical
education research. Unfortunately, that winter Congress
passed an emergency tax reduction bill that cut all National
Institutes of Health Research Grants by one third across the
board. The research stalled, I was out of a job.
While that was more than 15 years ago, I have never forgotten
what we learned about human motivation in that study.
And I believe it is applicable to many situations, especially
the workplace.
I still don’t know why people won’t do what they’re told.
But I do know how to “make them an offer that they can’t
refuse.” Information, ultimatums, and substitutions don’t
work nearly as well as a strong positive offer that empowers
people and minimizes the threat.
Creating the Offer
Employees who expect a clear reward, such as a promotion
or monetary bonus, for the timely, successful completion of
a goal will be inclined to work harder and give it their best,
especially if the goal is clear and the expectation of attainment
is high. While it may seem to a manager that an offer
is hard to refuse, individuals will assess five factors before
deciding on their course of action. These are:
• If I attempt this behavior, am I likely to succeed?
• How much do I value the offer?
• Is the new behavior intrinsically valuable?
(For example, will I be liked by my co-workers and
respected by management.)
• Does this value outweigh any negative consequences?
(Will co-workers reject me for “sucking up to
the boss?”)
• Will my new behavior be acceptable to my family?
(Or, will overtime cut into family time.)
Managers who create motivational offers must therefore
find desirable, valued outcomes that outweigh the natural
desire to keep things the way they are. And, rather than
simply assuming they know what their employees really
want, they should interview them and candidly ask what
kind of incentives would be most desirable. Surprisingly, it’s
not always about money. Choices that take into account a
variety of employee preferences will be more desirable than
single options.
(continued on page 28)
“…make them
an offer that they
can’t refuse.”
Information,
ultimatums,
and substitutions
don’t work nearly
as well as a
strong positive
offer that
empowers people
and minimizes
the threat.
Debt 3 March/April 2007
27